Communio – Page 451 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

New Benedictine Abbey in Oklahoma

Yesterday was the feast of Saint Scholastica, the twin sister of Saint Benedict but today Father Abbot Antoine of the Abbey Our Lady of Fontgombault announced that Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Monastery is now an abbey.

Dom Philip Anderson was named the first abbot of Clear Creek by the Abbot of Fontgombault, Dom Antoine Forgeot. Dom Francis Bethel the long-time guestmaster was named prior and Dom Mark Bachmann, subprior.

Pray for Abbot Philip and for the monks of the Clear Creek Abbey!

The Abbey of Our Lady of Fontgombault, France (1948) is a foundation of the Abbey of Saint Peter, Solesmes (revived in 1833).

Saints Benedict and Scholastica, pray for us.

Prayer as love in light of Saint Anthony of Padua

I present the Wednesday (February 10, 2010) Address of Pope Benedict on Saint Anthony of Padua, following upon his talks on Saints Francis and Dominic in the past weeks. What is a stake here for the Pope? It is being centered totally on Jesus Christ. Nothing else matters. Prayer, a relationship of love with God is a constant. As the pope will note below, you can’t make progress in the spiritual life if you do not pray and live a life of virtue.

And now, the pope…

After presenting two weeks ago the figure of Francis of Assisi, this morning I would like to speak about another saint belonging to the first generation of Friars Minor: Anthony of Padua or, as he is also called, of Lisbon, referring to his native city. He is one of the most popular saints in the whole Catholic Church, venerated not only in Padua, where a splendid basilica was built, which houses his mortal remains, but in the whole world. Dear to the faithful are images and statues that represent him with the lily, symbol of purity, or with the Child Jesus in his arms, in memory of a miraculous apparition mentioned in some literary sources.

Anthony contributed in a significant way to the development of Franciscan spirituality, with his outstanding gifts of intelligence, balance, apostolic zeal and, mainly, mystical fervor.

He was born in Lisbon of a noble family around 1195 and was baptized with the name Fernando. He entered the canons who followed the monastic rule of St. Augustine, first in the monastery of St. Vincent in Lisbon, and subsequently in that of the Holy Cross in Coimbra, renown cultural center of Portugal. He dedicated himself with interest and solicitude to the study of the Bible and of the Fathers of the Church, acquiring that theological science that he made fructify in the activities of teaching and preaching.

The episode that marked a decisive change in his life took place in Coimbra: In 1220 the relics were exposed there of the first five Franciscan missionaries who had gone to Morocco, where they met with martyrdom. Their case aroused in young Fernando the desire to imitate them and to advance in the way of Christian perfection: He then asked to leave the Augustinian canons and become a Friar Minor. His request was accepted and, taking the name Anthony, he also left for Morocco, but Divine Providence willed otherwise. As the consequence of an illness, he was obliged to return to Italy and, in 1221, he took part in the famous “Chapter of the mats” in Assisi, where he also met St. Francis. Subsequently, he lived for a time totally hidden in a convent near Forli, in the north of Italy, where the Lord called him to another mission. Invited, by totally accidental circumstances, to preach on the occasion of a priestly ordination, he showed he was gifted with such learning and eloquence that the superiors destined him to preaching. Thus he began in Italy and France such an intense and effective apostolic activity that he induced not a few persons who had separated from the Church to retrace their steps. He was also among the first teachers of theology of the Friars Minor, if not even the first. He began his teaching in Bologna, with Francis’ blessing who, recognizing Anthony’s virtues, sent him a brief letter with these words:

“I would like you to teach theology to the friars.” Anthony set the foundations of Franciscan theology that, cultivated by other famous figures of thinkers, came to its zenith with St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and Blessed Duns Scotus.

Becoming provincial superior of the Friars Minor of northern Italy, he continued with the ministry of preaching, alternating that with administrative tasks. When his mandate as provincial came to an end, he retired near Padua where he had already been other times. Barely a year later, he died at the gates of the city on June 13, 1231. Padua, which in life had received him with affection and veneration, showed him forever honor and devotion. Pope Gregory IX himself, after hearing him preach, described him as the “Arc of the Testament,” and canonized him in 1232, also as a result of the miracles that happened through his intercession.

In the last period of his life, Anthony committed to writing two series of “Sermons” titled, respectively, “Sunday Sermons” and “Sermons on the Saints,” written for preachers and professors of theological studies of the Franciscan Order. In them he comments on the texts of sacred Scripture presented by the liturgy, using the Patristic Medieval interpretation of the four meanings: the literal or historical, the allegorical or Christological, the tropological or moral, and the anagogic, which guides to eternal life. They are theologic-homiletic texts, which take up the lively preaching in which Anthony proposes a true and proper itinerary of Christian life. The wealth of the spiritual teachings contained in the “Sermons” is such that, in 1946, the Venerable Pope Pius XII proclaimed Anthony a doctor of the Church, attributing to him the title of “Evangelic Doctor,” because from these writings arises the freshness and beauty of the Gospel; even today we can read them with great spiritual profit.

In them, he speaks of prayer as a relationship of love, which drives man to converse sweetly with the Lord, creating an ineffable joy, which gently envelops the soul in prayer. Anthony reminds us that prayer needs an atmosphere of silence, which is not the same as withdrawal from external noise, but is an interior experience, which seeks to remove the distractions caused by the soul’s preoccupations. According to the teaching of this distinguished Franciscan doctor, prayer is made up of four indispensable attitudes which, in Anthony’s Latin, are described as: obsecratio, oratio, postulatio, gratiarum actio. We could translate them thus: to open one’s heart confidently to God, to speak affectionately with him, to present to him our needs, to praise him and to thank him.

In this teaching of St. Anthony on prayer we see one of the specific features of Franciscan theology — of which he was the initiator — namely, the role given to divine love, which enters in the sphere of affection, of the will, of the heart and which is also the source from which springs a spiritual knowledge that surpasses all knowledge.

Anthony writes: “Charity is the soul of faith, makes it alive; without love, faith dies” (Sunday and Holy Days Sermons II, Messagero, Padua, 1979, p. 37).

Only a soul that prays can make progress in the spiritual life: this is the privileged object of St. Anthony’s preaching. He knows well the defects of human nature, the tendency to fall into sin; that is why he constantly exhorts to combat the inclination to covetousness, to pride, to impurity and to practice the virtues of poverty and generosity, of humility and obedience, of chastity and purity. At the beginning of the 13th century, in the context of the rebirth of the cities and the flourishing of trade, there was an increased number of people who were insensitive to the poor. Because of this, Anthony many times invites the faithful to think of true wealth, that of the heart, which, making them good and merciful, makes them accumulate treasures for Heaven. “O rich people,” he exhorts, “befriend… the poor, welcome them in your homes: They will then be the ones who receive you in the eternal tabernacles, where the beauty of peace is, the confidence of security, and the opulent quiet of eternal satiety” (Ibid., p. 29).

Is not this perhaps, dear friends, a very important teaching also today, when the financial crisis and the serious economic imbalances impoverish not a few persons and create conditions of misery? In my encyclical Caritas in Veritate, I remind that: “The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly — not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centred” (No. 45).

In Francis’ school, Anthony always puts Christ in the center of life and thought, of action and preaching. This is another typical feature of Franciscan theology: Christ-centeredness. Willingly [this theology] contemplates and invites to contemplate the mysteries of the Lord’s humanity, in a particular way, that of the Nativity, which arouse feelings of love and gratitude toward divine goodness.

Also the vision of the Crucified inspires in him thoughts of gratitude to God and of esteem for the dignity of the human person, so that all, believers and non-believers, can find a meaning that enriches life. Anthony writes: “Christ, who is your life, is hanging before you, because you look at the cross as in a mirror. There you will be able to know how mortal were your wounds, which no medicine but that of the blood of the Son of God could have cured. If you look well, you will realize how great are your human dignity and your value … In no other place can man realize better how much he is worth, but by looking at himself in the mirror of the cross” (Sunday and Holy Days Sermons III, p. 59).

Grace happens in Haiti

Yesterday I posted a brief note on the good work of CRUDEM and encouraging all of us to pray and to consider making a financial gift to help the relief efforts. It seems as though prayer is working and needs are being met. In my email inbox the following note was received and I thought it was a good illustration of the what is being done to aid the Haitian people in this incredible time of need. The author of this post is the president of the hospital foundation, CRUDEM, and a member of the Order of Malta.

Today thanks to the efforts of many people and the generosity of an anonymous donor, 8 of our seriously ill children ranging in age from 3 to 13 were allowed by the Haitian authorities and UN to leave Haiti for treatment. A private jet from Western Massachusetts landed in Cap Haitian this morning filled with nurses and doctors from Baystate Medical Center and left with 8 children from Hopital Sacre Coeur accompanied by 2 physicians and 2 nurses.

The jet landed 4 hours later at Bradley Airport [Hartford, CT] where there were 6 ambulances waiting. Since it was snowing and in the 20’s the jet pulled into a hanger so the children could be protected. They were carefully carried to stretchers covered in blankets and given stuffed animals to accompany them on their trip to Shriners hospital (5 with serious orthopedic problems), a Boston burn unit (2 with serious burns), Baystate Pediatric intensive care unit (a girl with a fractured pelvis and other fractures).

Our census is around 400 patients despite discharges such as the above miracle. We are still receiving transfer patients from the USS comfort. Our volunteers continue to work 16 to 20 hour days and are an inspiration to watch. My son who just returned was in awe of the Professors of Internal medicine, surgery and Ophthalmology who were changing bandages and caring for patients in the temporary hospital because that was where the need was. Egos and status are put aside and the only focus is on how best to care for our patients. The true volunteer spirit of being willing to do whatever is needed is evident in all of our teams.

Typically we have about 170 volunteers come to
Hôpital Sacré Coeur each year. Since the earthquake we have had over 250 and will continue to have at least 50 a week for the next 2 months. The list of people wanting to volunteer grows each day. This is proof for all of us that the majority of people are caring and want to help their fellow man. We need to remember this as we read and hear the negative in the media.

Thanks to private donations by individuals, companies and nonprofits such as Americares and Project Hope, we are still receiving the supplies we need to keep the hospital running. Our food shortage has ended thanks to the generosity of Malteser International who is financing the shipment of truckloads of food from the Dominican Republic. God has blessed us in this time of tragedy with the many people who make the Miracles at
Hôpital Sacré Coeur happen.

Venerable Servant of God Pierre Toussaint, pray for us.

Blessed Gerard, pray for us.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Sickness & suffering can become a school of hope, Pope says on the 18th World Day of the Sick

On the 18th World Day of the Sick observed each year on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes the Pope Benedict sends to the world a message. The Pope draws my attention, and perhaps yours, to the fact that Jesus tells us to do what He has done: be an instrument of healing by allowing divine grace to actually work. To “go and do likewise” is the reason why priests reconcile sinners, strengthen the sick through the sacrament of the sick, to “go and do likewise” is why Sr Mary Ellen Genova visits the sick weekly bring the Gospel and the Eucharist to those who can’t come to church, to “go and do likewise” is why Fr Jordan Kelly and the NY Dominican Friars have a healthcare ministry at 4 of the world’s prestigious hospitals, to “go and do likewise” is doing what Jesus did when we had the anointing of the sick for breast cancer survivors on the feast of Saint Agatha on February 5th, and to “go and do likewise” is why Fr Thomas Berg and the Westchester Institute works on healthcare ethics. There is no end to what we do in order to follow Christ more closely, focusing not on ourselves but on God the Father asking for the grace to deal directly with illness and suffering in a graced-filled manner.

I extracted three paragraphs from the 2010 message for our consideration here today. The points emphasized are what I think the crucial elements of the papal message to be used for prayer and consideration.

At the end of the parable, Jesus said: “Go and do likewise” (Lk 10: 37). With these words he is also addressing us. Jesus exhorts us to bend over the physical and mental wounds of so many of our brothers and sisters whom we meet on the highways of the world. He helps us to understand that with God’s grace, accepted and lived out in our daily life, the experience of sickness and suffering can become a school of hope. In truth, as I said in the Encyclical Spe salvi, “It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed,
but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love” (n. 37).

The Second Ecumenical Vatican Council had already recalled the Church’s important task of caring for human suffering. In the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium we read that “Christ was sent by the Father “to bring good news to the poor… to heal the contrite of heart’ (Lk 4: 18), “to seek and to save what was lost’ (Lk 19: 10)…. Similarly, the Church encompasses with her love all those who are afflicted by human misery and she recognizes in those who are poor and who suffer, the image of her poor and suffering Founder. She does all in her power to relieve their need and in them she strives to serve Christ” (n. 8). The ecclesial community’s humanitarian and spiritual
action for the sick and the suffering has been expressed down the centuries in many forms and health-care structures, also of an institutional character. I would like here to recall those directly managed by the dioceses and those born from the generosity of various religious Institutes. It is a precious “patrimony” that corresponds with the fact that “love… needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community” (Encyclical Deus caritas est, n. 20). The creation of the Pontifical Council for Health-Care Workers 25 years ago complies with the Church’s solicitude for the world of health care. And I am anxious to add that at this moment in history and culture we are feeling even more acutely the need for an attentive and far-reaching ecclesial presence beside the sick, as well as a presence in society that can effectively pass on the Gospel values that safeguard human life in all its phases, from its conception to its natural end.

In this Year for Priests, my thoughts turn in particular to you, dear priests, “ministers of the sick”, signs and instruments of Christ’s compassion who must reach out to every person marked by suffering. I ask you, dear presbyters, to spare no effort in giving them care and comfort. Time spent beside those who are put to the test may bear fruits of grace for all the other dimensions of pastoral care. Lastly I address you, dear sick people and I ask you to pray and to offer your suffering up for priests, so that they may continue to be faithful to their vocation and that their ministry may be rich in spiritual fruits for the benefit of the whole Church.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Richard Pampuri, pray for us.

Our Lady of Lourdes

You have been blessed, O Virgin Mary, above all other women on earth by the Lord the most high God; he has so exalted your name that your praises shall never fade from the mouths of men.

In the recent
weeks I’ve had to think more about the place of Mary, Mother of God (Theotokos)
in Catholic theology, worship and personal devotion. This was especially keen
when I took the negative position of a resolution on the worthiness of a
believer’s adherence to the phenomenon of Medjugorje. Marian piety is a strong
reality in Catholicism and no good Catholic can claim being in communion with
the believing community of faith if there is no adherence to some form of
devotion to the Mother of God, Mary the Virgin. Today, the Church honors the
Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes. Let me pose a points on what we believe viz.
Marian doctrine.

We can begin thinking about the BVM in sacred Scripture,
(e.g., the Annunciation or at the cross) the Apostolic Fathers and beyond but I
want to limit ourselves to the Second Vatican Council and a other notable
teachers of the Faith. Vatican II teaches us that Our Lady’s intercession
before the Throne of Grace is, in fact, long standing. Pope Paul VI speaks of
Mary as the intercessor for unity among Christians and world peace, ultimately
giving her the title of “Queen of Peace” (see the 1974 document Marialis
cultus, 5 & 33). Developing
the them of Mary’s maternity based on Vatican II thinking, Pope John Paul II in
his encyclical 1980 Dives in misericordia (no. 9) claims for us that Mary’s
motherhood the eternal Word of God has a special place in our own redemption.
In other places John Paul also speaks of Mary’s assistance in ecumenical work
as the “Mother of Unity” and he reaffirms Pope Paul’s “Queen of Peace” title.

Catholics
always make distinctions. We have “public revelation” and “private revelation”
when it comes to matters of faith and salvation. The teaching of the Church
says that public revelation ended with the death of Saint John, the beloved
disciple and evangelist. With John’s death revelation is said to be closed as
there were no other direct witnesses to the Resurrection of Jesus from the
dead. Revelation, here, contains all that God has revealed to us in His Son,
Jesus Christ. Since Christ established a Church to continue the ongoing work of
salvation public revelation means that it is contained in sacred Scripture,
Tradition and the Teaching of the Church: what has been handed down from Jesus,
to the Apostles to the bishops and to us. We believe, therefore, that Jesus
Christ is the fullness of revelation; He is the definitive revelation of God.

Revelation
is considered private when something of the Paschal Mystery (the life, death,
resurrection and ascension) of the Lord is made known to a saint, to Mary, or
through contemplative prayer. While the Apostles were alive revelation
continued to reveal some specific about the Lord as it concerns our salvation
while private revelation does not add anything to what is already revealed in
the public revelation. The contribution to our spiritual lives that a private
revelation makes is a certain guidance, application, correction or exhortation.
As examples of this would be the 14 Marian apparitions and saints like Faustina,
Catherine of Siena, Margaret Mary Alacoque and Catherine Labouré. While all of
things these saints have revealed to us assist us in our faith they are
considered to be private revelation but with a prophetic quality to them. But
the Church does not bind our consciences to believe these private revelations
because they are not part of the revelation given to us through the apostles.

Private
revelation, nonetheless, has a special place in theological reflection and must
be considered sympathetically as there is an element of private revelation that
is prophetic. Saint Thomas Aquinas writes, “in every period there have always
been some who have the spirit of prophecy, not to set forth new teaching of the
faith, but to give direction to human activities” (Summa theologiae II-II, 174,
6 ad 3).

The feast of Our Lady of Lourdes leads us to recall the infallible doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. This feast reminds us of the extraordinary events in 1858 when the Virgin Mary identified herself to Bernadette Soubirous on the banks of the Gave River near Lourdes, France as the Immaculate Virgin. The apparition of the Immaculate Virgin Mary came four years after the Church promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

There were 18 apparitions with the last one on July 16, 1858.

The message given to Bernadette at Lourdes is a Gospel message: Mary calls all people to believe in the Gospel and always keeping in mind that God loves and cares for each of us. It is a “Prodigal Son” message of calling back sinners to a loving Father. This road of conversion to Christ is a personal, intimate encounter with the Lord. It is lived in the faith community of the Church. This is a message of healing of the heart and not only physical healing, which is one way of manifesting a spiritual healing. God’s healing of the heart goes to the deepest places where we are often unaware.

Our prayer, then, is what the Church prays at Mass:

God of mercy, we celebrate the feast of Mary, the sinless mother of God. May her prayers help us to rise above our human weakness.

The story of Lourdes can be viewed here.

The story of the 67 miracles of Lourdes can heard here.

About the documentary of Lourdes.

Pope Benedict to Visit Cyprus: what are the preparations?

In early June, Pope
Benedict XVI travesl to Cyprus, the third largest island in the Mediterranean
and a mixed group of religions. He’s making a pastoral visit where he will give
the Middle East bishops the Instrumentum laboris (the working document focusing
the meeting) of the Synod of Bishops on the Eastern Churches due to be held
next October in the Vatican. This is yet another example of the Pope reaching out to the local Catholic churches and to the Orthodox Christians, Muslims and political leaders. It is hard for me to say this is a strategic visit but it certainly opens the mind that there are significant reasons in the pope’s mind as to why Cyprus and not another mixed culture. A good reason may be that he’s been to the Holy Land already and that neither Lebanon, Egypt nor Syria are willing to host the pope. At any rate, Cyprus is a logical choice because of the confluence of faith and reason.

For those who don’t know, Cyprus has a small
Catholic community of the Maronite and Latin Churches. The Latin Church is
governed by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude, Archbishop Fouad
Twal, and for centuries have been assisted by the Franciscan friars of the
Custody of the Holy Land. Giampiero Sandionigi’s interview with Franciscan Father
Umberto Barato, a parish priest in Nicosia and Vicar General for Cyprus of the
Latin Patriarchate follows in brief.

Father Barato, the Pope receives
invitations from many governments and episcopates but cannot accept them all.
How do you explain his decision to come to Cyprus, an island with, after all, a
fairly small Catholic community?

I don’t know how many invitations the Pope
receives and from how many countries. I only know that he decided to accept the
invitation of the Orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus, Chrysostomos II, and the
President Dimitri Christofias. There had been a precedent and perhaps that also
counted: John Paul II had wanted to visit the island but, due to questions of
time and the Pope’s poor health, he never made the journey. It is true that the
Catholic community in Cyprus is small, but I do not think that this is a
contra-indication. However that may be, I believe that Benedict XVI decided to
make the visit prior to the Synod on the Middle East. In addition, he will also
have thought about the political and religious situation of the island. It’s
not that the Pope can solve the problem of the division of Cyprus or tell the
leaders what they should do, but his presence can give courage and a positive
impulse to relations between the two sides.

When the trip was announced, some
people imagined that it would have particular consequences on ecumenical
dialogue at a European, or even global, level. What do you think about this?
What are the daily relations between Catholics and Orthodox like in Cyprus, and
with the Turkish Muslim minority?

It’s natural that people think like that.
Going to a country with an Orthodox majority, it is obvious that some people
think that the meeting between the Pope and the leaders of the local Church can
be ecumenical in character, that it is like a step ahead in the encounter,
understanding and reciprocal acceptance. However, I do not believe that it can
go further. I expect that after the visit, relations between the Catholic and Orthodox
Churches in Cyprus will become even closer. They are already excellent and at a
level that I do not believe can be found elsewhere in parts of the world where
the two Churches coexist. I’ll pass over the minor difficulties that sometimes
we come up against. In general, these are the fruit of ignorance or prejudice
fuelled by the long separation and reciprocal non-recognition between the two
sides. The positive fact is that the Catholic Church in Cyprus is accepted,
recognized and esteemed for its work of apostolate and education. There are
already some forms of collaboration, but the Pope’s visit will certainly be a
privileged occasion for the bonds to become even closer. With the Muslims, on
the contrary, we have no relations.

Challenging the well-manicured: Archbishop Chaput takes a look at our cultural engagement

Someone who “gets it” is Capuchin Franciscan Archbishop Charles Chaput, archbishop of Denver. Whether it be culture, beauty, healthcare, abortion, immigrant rights, education, politics, preaching, I think the archbishop is a clear thinker and renders a fine and helpful assessment of Christian life and a Christians involvement in the world. Recently, Archbishop Chaput was in Rome to give a talk he titled, “The Prince of This World and the Evangelization of Culture” at the Fifth Symposium Rome: Priests and Laity on Mission. In this address the archbishop addresses questions of culture, beauty, anthropology, faith, evangelization and sin and grace.

What follows is only an excerpt of a longer talk that you can read at the link above. AND I recommend you read the entire text!

In 1929, as the great totalitarian murder-regimes began to rise up in Europe, the philosopher Raissa Maritain wrote a forgotten little essay called “The Prince of This World.” It is worth reading. We need to remember her words today and into the future. With no trace of irony or metaphor, Maritain argued:

“Lucifer has cast the strong though invisible net of illusion upon us. He makes one love the passing moment above eternity, uncertainty above truth. He persuades us that we can only love creatures by making Gods of them. He lulls us to sleep (and he interprets our dreams); he makes us work. Then does the spirit of man brood over stagnant waters. Not the least of the devil’s victories is to have convinced artists and poets that he is their necessary, inevitable collaborator and the guardian of their greatness. Grant him that, and soon you will grant him that Christianity is unpracticable. Thus does he reign in this world.”

If we do not believe in the devil, sooner or later we will not believe in God. We cannot cut Lucifer out of the ecology of salvation. Satan is not God’s equal. He is a created being subject to God and already, by the measure of eternity, defeated. Nonetheless, he is the first author of pride and rebellion, and the great seducer of man. Without him the Incarnation and Redemption do not make sense, and the cross is meaningless. Satan is real. There is no way around this simple truth.

Let me underline that even more strongly. Leszek Kolakowski, the former Marxist philosopher who died just last year, was one of the great minds of the last century. He was never a religious person in the traditional sense. But Kolakowski had few doubts about the reality of the devil. In his essay Short Transcript of a Metaphysical Press Conference Given by the Demon in Warsaw, on 20th December 1963, Kolakowski’s devil indicts all of us who call ourselves “modern” Christians with the following words:

“Where is there a place [in your thinking] for the fallen angel? … Is Satan only a rhetorical figure? . . . Or else, gentlemen, is he a reality, undeniable, recognized by tradition, revealed in the Scriptures, commented upon by the Church for two millennia, tangible and acute? Why do you avoid me, gentlemen? Are you afraid that the skeptics will mock you, that you will be laughed at in satirical late night reviews? Since when is the faith affected by the jeers of heathens and heretics? What road are you taking? If you forsake the foundations of the faith for fear of mockery, where will you end? If the devil falls victim to your fear [of embarrassment] today, God’s turn must inevitably come tomorrow. Gentlemen, you have been ensnared by the idol of modernity, which fears ultimate matters and hides from you their importance. I don’t mention it for my own benefit – it is nothing to me – I am talking about you and for you, forgetting for a moment my own vocation, and even my duty to propagate error.”

We live in an age that imagines itself as post-modern and post-Christian. It is a time defined by noise, urgency, action, utility and a hunger for practical results. But there is nothing really new about any of this. I think St. Paul would find our age rather familiar. For all of the rhetoric about “hope and change” in our politics, our urgencies hide a deep unease about the future; a kind of well-manicured selfishness and despair. The world around us has a hole in its heart, and the emptiness hurts. Only God can fill it. In our baptism, God called each of us in this room today to be his agents in that work. Like St. Paul, we need to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (Jas 1:22). We prove what we really believe by our willingness, or our refusal, to act on what we claim to believe.

But when we talk about a theme like today’s topic – “Priests and laity together, changing and challenging the culture” – we need to remember that what we do, proceeds from who we are. Nothing is more dead than faith without works (Jas 2:17); except maybe one thing: works without faith. I do not think Paul had management issues in his head when he preached at the Areopagus. Management and resources are important – but the really essential questions, the questions that determine everything else in our life as Christians, are these: Do I really know God? Do I really love him? Do I seek him out? Do I study his word? Do I listen for his voice? Do I give my heart to him? Do I really believe he’s there?

For more than 30 years, first as a bishop and now as the successor to St. Peter, Benedict XVI has spoken often and very forcefully about the “culture of relativism” that guides today’s developed world, breaks down human community and intimacy, and drains the meaning out of human activity. That culture flows out of the “new Areopagus” John Paul II described in Redemptoris Missio – a culture formed by radically new technologies and methods of communication; a culture with a power that reshapes how we think, what we think about, and how we organize our personal and social lives.

We have an obligation as Catholics to study and understand the world around us. We have a duty not just to penetrate and engage it, but to convert it to Jesus Christ. That work belongs to all of us equally: clergy, laity and religious. We are missionaries. That is our primary vocation; it is hardwired into our identity as Christians. God calls each of us to different forms of service in his Church. But we are all equal in baptism. And we all share the same mission of bringing the Gospel to the world, and bringing the world to the Gospel.

Rehabilitating our friends in Haiti: the work of CRUDEM

I’ve been getting daily updates from the CRUDEM folks in Haiti. I am sure many are keeping current on the efforts of those trying to help the earthquake victims. The stories of the tragedy and the human efforts sustained by God, I am convinced, move the heart.

Financial gifts to an agency is a good thing AND so is prayer. Please consider making a contribution to AVSI, CRS and the Order of Malta is recommended and asking the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary to guide this human process of aiding our Haitian sisters and brothers is crucial. When the earthquake was announced I mentioned asking for the divine mediation of Venerable Servant of God Pierre Toussaint: I renew that request. When you visit the Blessed Sacrament today make a prayer for Haiti!

The crisis continues and so does the humanitarian efforts in the areas of medicine and food outreach to help the citizens of Haiti recover their lives. Human resources, budgets and food supplies are stretched thin, for obvious reasons. Many, many acts of kindnesses have be demonstrated. Keep yourself engaged by visiting CRUDEM.

Saint Scholastica

The Church uses biblical imagery to center our worship of the Blessed Trinity. On this feast of Saint Scholastica, virgin, the Church prays the Office and Mass of Virgins and a recurring theme is taken from Psalm 44, a nuptial hymn. There we meet Christ as the bridegroom and the Church, with Saint Scholastica as the model of bride. Baptized and adopted sons and daughters of God, we walk as brides to the altar of our salvation in the proclamation of the Word and Eucharist. As Scholastica is the virgin bride of Christ, we too enter into the mystery of our salvation as Christ’s brides according to the grace given to us and are addressed as such by the sacred Liturgy of the Church.

Today the Church observes Saint Scholastica’s liturgical memorial, the twin sister of the Patriarch of Western Monasticism, Saint Benedict. Not often can we say that in the canon of saints that one’s twin is also enrolled. Tradition has her being born in Norcia c. 480 and dying in 543. The bodies of Saint Scholastica and Saint Benedict share a common tomb at Monte Cassino, a fitting place of rest for twins. Monte Cassino is a beautiful place of pilgrimage if you get a chance: I’ve done it twice.

Saint Scholastica is the patron saint against rain, storms, convulsive children, and nuns. And so, we ask Saint Scholastica to look after these things today. Of course, we in NY are engaged in a snow storm which I hope counts in the general idea of being against storms. Pray for us!

The 2009 post is noted here with the liturgical prayer for Saint Scholastica and a link to the Saint Gregory’s Dialogues.

Understanding Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

Periodically people ask about the practice of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I typically find the questions interesting because it seems like we have forgotten the reasons why we adore the eucharistic Presence of Jesus Christ and this experience of eucharistic adoration is key for every Catholic and for every parish, school, hospital, convent, abbey, etc.

When questions arise about the character of Adoration
of the Blessed Sacrament we should go to the liturgical book called Holy
Communion and Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass. While it does not provide
details about what ought or ought not be done at Adoration, it does provide a
liturgical theology by which we follow. There it says that

Exposition of
the Holy Eucharist is intended to acknowledge Christ’s marvelous presence in
the sacrament. Exposition invites us to the spiritual union with him that
culminates in sacramental communion. Thus it fosters very well the worship
which is due to Christ in spirit and in truth. This kind of exposition
must clearly express the cult of the blessed sacrament in its relationship to
the Mass. The plan of the exposition should carefully avoid anything
which might somehow obscure the principal desire of Christ in instituting the
Eucharist, namely, to be with us as food, medicine, and comfort” (n.82).

Therefore,
we can reason that devotions, songs, prayers, etc., ought to be consistent
with what is given in this book.

The Directory on Popular Piety and the
Liturgy: Principles and Guidelines does offer examples of what is
consistent with the purposes of Eucharistic adoration. It says:

The
faithful should be encouraged to read the Scriptures during these periods of
adoration, since they afford an unrivalled source of prayer. Suitable
hymns and canticles based on those of the Liturgy of the Hours and the
liturgical seasons could also be encouraged, as well as periods of silent
prayer and reflection. Gradually, the faithful should be encouraged not
to do other devotional exercises during exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
Given the close relationship between Christ and Our Lady, the rosary can
always be of assistance in giving prayer a Christological orientation, since it
contains meditation of the Incarnation and the Redemption (n.165).

This list of practices is not exhaustive, and it is not meant to be but it does give a useful sense of how to
evaluate our devotional practices during Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.